CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javarecursion
MISMajorDeveloperAnyways
MISMajorDeveloperAnyways

Reputation: 1439

Utilizing recursion to compute a series

I must be failing to wrap my head around the concept of trying to store a value in a recursive method. Solving this using iteration would take seconds, but I am struggling with the recursive call. Basically I am trying to solve: 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 ...

 public static void main(String[] args) {

    Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);    

    System.out.print("Enter in the end number for the sequence: ");
    int endpoint = input.nextInt();

    System.out.println("The value of the sequence is : " + calcSequence(endpoint));

    }

    public static double calcSequence (int index){

        if (index == 0)
            return 0;
        else
            return (1/index) + calcSequence(index - 1);
    }

Upvotes: 1

Views: 576

Answers (1)

ziesemer
ziesemer

Reputation: 28687

You need to add some explicit type conversions. Your 1/index is being performed as integer division, and your call is losing all its precision. Simply changing this to 1.0/index (or 1d/index to indicate that the 1 should be used as a double) should get you what you're looking for.

Upvotes: 6

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